When the Phillies hired Matt Klentak following the 2015 season, everyone was prepared for the pain.
Fans knew a grueling rebuild was coming. They knew the glory years of 2007-11 were behind them, that the franchise needed to introduce “analytics” into their organization, fill the farm system with top-tier talent that would provide the building blocks for the next era of Phillies baseball and essentially reconstruct every facet of the organization from the ground up.
Under team president Andy MacPhail, the Phils brought Klentak aboard to spearhead that effort. Klentak was a former Ivy League baseball player who was the assistant GM for the Los Angeles Angels for four seasons and after arriving in Philadelphia, did what everyone expected he would do.